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As the doors officially open on the 44th Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, much of the buzz surrounds tablets and televisions.

Given the incredible success of Apple’s iPad, it’s no surprise many of the big tech companies announced their own tablets just prior to the show, including products from the likes of Toshiba, LG, Panasonic, Dell, Motorola, Pandigital, Vizio and Lenovo, to name a few.

Apple, which never joins the CES party, is once again the elephant in the room, harkening back to the 2007 CES when attendees were buzzing about the just-announced iPhone.

That said, competing tablet makers are adding new features to stand out among the crowd. ASUS, for example, is debuting a number of different tablets, including three devices based on the latest version of Google’s Android operating system: a 7-inch touch-screen model; two 10.1-inch models (one with a slide-out keyboard and another that ships with a docking station keyboard that doubles as a battery extender); and a powerful 12.1-inch tablet that runs Windows 7 Home Premium.

Samsung has also announced a 10.1-inch tablet with slide-out keyboard, dubbed the Sliding PC 7 Series Mobile PC.

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Others are offering full-featured tablets at netbook prices. The Pandigital Multimedia Novel, for instance, a 9-inch Android device, sells for $279 (U.S.), about half the cost of an entry-level iPad.

And then there are the TVs. You might not realize it, but your television is slowing turning into a giant computer monitor.

Many of the TVs on display at CES feature integrated Wi-Fi for high-speed Internet access, ideal for video calls via Skype, streaming on-demand video services (such as Netflix) and support for customizable apps, not unlike your smartphone.

For example, Sony’s next-generation of Bravia XBR LED 3DTVs include support for the Gracenote online music database. If you hear a song you like during a commercial, TV show or movie, press a button on the remote and you’ll see the name of the track, who sings it and an option to buy it.

This same series of TVs (46- to 65-inches, out in March, but no price yet) has an integrated camera that can recognize faces. This will make it possible to prevent children from accessing adult programs, for example, or shut the TV off if the kids are sitting too close to the screen.

On-demand Netflix films are also getting multichannel audio — up to 7.1 surround sound, in fact — should you have a compatible AV receiver and multiple speakers to support it. Called Dolby Digital Plus, this technology adds movie theatre-like audio to streaming video.

The industry-only expo features nearly 2 million square feet of showroom floor space — the equivalent of about 30 football fields — packed with more than 2,700 exhibitors showing off their wares.

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